Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting New RAR Predator 6.5 Creed.... UBER Ghetto: 700 yards for $700...

No, the Savage metal trigger guard just replaces the RAR's plastic unit. A one for one swap, just like the Marlin X gun guys swapping their plastic trigger guards for the metal units from the Marlin rimfire 981s or 983s.

got it, thanks.

On my 45 minute commute, I keep pondering what it would take to make one into a blind mag.

Thought someone already worked it out.

Holy Shiit. Who'd have thought? A $700 LR rig. You could throw in a Boyd's, sell it as a package for a grand and still make 20%. LR package 1000 donuts...

I don't want to take market share from Flave Precision.....

Not sure why everyone is so quick to yank the stock. A few minutes with a file, a little bedding, some plastic bags, and a little paint will fix them right up.

As is.... it'll get a lot of play....

What are the plastic bags for?

Packin home the groceries....

Seriously though.... I stuff them into the hollow stock for a little acoustic dampening.

Dogshooter, I'd appreciate a simple, but detailed instruction of your few minutes with the file, bedding, and plastic bags. I may be attempting something similar. Any advice you can offer is appreciated, actually.

Jason.... I didn't so much bed the action, as bed the stock. As folks have eluded to here... the stock seems to be the weakest point of the gun. As far as ergos go, it's fine... it's just that it's flimsy... as I'm sure you know. I took a file to all the molding lines in the stock... some of them you could nearly shave with. Then sanded it a little to provide a little adhesion area for the Krylon.

It seems to me, that the way the rifle is attached to the stock, via the V-Lugs, is a pretty good system. I didn't really experience any shifts in POI while beating the crap out of it for 3 hours... so I'm convinced the action will stay where it's told in the stock.

The stock staying away from the pipe is another story, and I felt it was the biggest cause of the little fliers (.5-.75moa) I was seeing at 400-600. It would pound a couple in the middle... then a wierd high right hit. Not enough to miss... but certainly outside the majority of other shots.

I took a rasp to the inside of the barrel channel to relieve it, especially on the left side. I could see almost immediately that there was no way to get enough gap, because the stock was flexing back by the action... right at the front screw. So I mixed up some JB Putty, roughed up the action, and stuffed the putty in about the first 1.5" of the barrel channel from the lug forward. I sprayed down the action with OneShot, and snugged it into the stock just like I was gonna shoot it. Let it dry a couple hours, popped it out, trimmed it up, and viola... no more stock touching barrel without some serious effort. Don't know that it'll help with the "accuracy"... but it should help with the consistency. I know some folks will bemoan the use of the putty.... but come-on man... it's a plastic f'n stock... if I'm in a situation where the JB Putty is failing... the stock has long since melted.

Thank you Dogshooter! That was more detail than I expectd, and exactly what I wanted to know. I know exactly what you're talking about with the flimsy stock. I've gotten vertical stringing on everything I've shot so far. Not bad, but taking away the stringing, it'd be a half-moa shooter. I like what you did there with the putty. Part of the magic of the cheap rifle is the ability to 'redneck' it guiltlessly. I'll play around with a few things this week when I can get out next, and will likely try something like what you've done there to add stiffness to the stock.

I appreciate it, man.

cool posts. nice read.

I have had good luck using neoprene O-rings around barrels to isolate the barrel from the stock on rifles with mannlicher-style stocks and on rifles with flexible stocks. The neoprene is soft/flexible, so it doesn't produce a "hard" pressure point against the barrel.

Good info Dogshooter. Thanks for posting it.

I used Oatey putty on my milkjug RAR stock, but only captured the forward portion of the receiver. The Oatey is white in color in the first pic below. The grey putty is Loc-tite but doesn't touch the barrel.

On the Boyd's plywood, I captured the nut and shank, along with the receiver but the system was sensitive to action screw torque so I removed the nut & shank bedding, leaving only the forward portion of the receiver captured (second pic).

The plywood stock adds enough mass where shooting it well is noticeably easier than the milk-jug. But my RAR is a 223 All-Weather with the lighter barrel taper.

J

Forgot to mention that barrel heat seemed to affect POI with the nut and shank captured. But I was ripping thru the handloads at a fast pace.

With the 223 All-Weather in the plywood, its a slick shooter for relatively low bucks. Pic below is at 490y. The 3-shots upper left were with a slight wind. 3 of the 4 in the green were shot when it was calm. Not sure about the 2 in the lower left but the string was done pretty quick.

I've only gone to ~600y thus far, but will stretch it out a little more this week.

Looks good 4th.... glad I'm not the only one who'll use a littlw redneck engineering.

I know you went Timney too.... worth is?

What's the weight difference between the factory stock and the Boyds? I've got a couple of the Prairie Hunters for SA Rems, and they seem solid... but chunky.

Great thread.

Huntsmann22, how does the accuracy of the American Predator match up with the Hawkeye predator?

Thanks!

My Boyds Heritage laminated stock weighs 39 ounces and the factory RAR-P stock weighs 23.4 ounces, so just under 1 lb. more. For me, the improved egrs more than off-set the additional weight, but it is now just over 9 lbs. with a Weaver V16 in Warne fixed Maxima rings. Not a vertical hunting rifle, but it never really was.

The Heritage style is, pretty much, the Prairie Hunter with a more slender forearm. Sort of the Boyds version of the Remington Hunter vs. the McM Hunter. I have several Prairie Hunters, but think that I might buy a couple more Heritage style stocks for my RAR-Ps in 223 and 6.5 Creed, maybe in blackjack and coyote laminate colors.

Can't see spending $100 on an extra pound of wood.... but I have low expectations of this rifle.

It'll be vedy interesting to see how it stacks up against rigs costing five to ten times as much down at the SRM in a couple weeks.

Got 5lbs of RE17 today to play with too....

$113.50, plus shipping, pays for different ergs, the weight is free. Since the RAR requires a trigger guard, magazine latch, longer screws, and recoil lugs, the base cost is a little higher than the average Boyds stock.

As I posted elsewhere, the RAR-P has the potential to become the sort of project that starts off as an economical shooter and, little by little, it becomes a money pit. Add $120 for a Boyds stock. Add $120 for a Timney trigger. Add $40 for a different Picatinny rail. Etc., etc., etc.

What is the "SRM"?

SRM is 'Sporting Rifle Match'..... I bet the average rig down there costs about $6000-$7000 for gun/glass/mounts.....

http://sportingriflematch.com

I think I'm going to run this rig down there in two weeks.... it would really suck to drop $7500 on a platform, and anally prepare each round.... then watch a guy make the same hits all day long running a $750 rig and factory ammo. I know one thing..... it'll be the cheapest rig on the line.